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2026 writer-in-residence: Dr Mandy Haggith -
Head - hand - heart for a healthy Ocean
Engagement activities between SAMS scientists and artists
SAMS has been collaborating with artists from the start: Artist John James Wild was part of the core team on the Challenger Expedition (1872-76) that established modern marine science in the UK. Importantly, he was also a scientist while the scientists also created some fabulous illustrations. Three photographers were also involved in different part of the expedition. Read more...
In this spirit we continue our engagement with all types of creatives. We support artists with accessing our Ocean related understanding, data and resources and in return they challenge us with their different way of seeing, create artistic responses to our shared interests and inspire us to express our own experiences and emotions towards the Ocean and our research through art.
Any creative interested in collaborating with us, please contact our filmmaker (and former artist in residence) Andy Crabb or Head of Comms and Engagement Anuschka Miller.
As a former UHI colleague, Mandy is no newcomer to SAMS. She was already an Honorary Research Fellow, had launched her sea poetry collection Briny at our Ocean Explorer Centre, and had collaborated with Viola Madau in her Dùthchas project when she joined us as our writer-in-residence for 2026-7. She is completing a novel exploring the many possible ways to respond to climate change. Find out more about Mandy's immense portfolio of work here.
Artist and water baby Viola contacted SAMS following a snorkelling artist residency in the Argyll Hope Spot with a project idea for a short animated documentary blending science, art, Gaelic folklore and community action. This documentary skilfully conveys complex information using simple emotive audio-visual storytelling to inspire change for Scottish seas. Find out more about Viola's work here.
Helena spent six months at SAMS during her PhD affiliated with Dr Mikey Ross and the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa, exploring the world of micro- and macroalgae. She produced an abundance of poems about algae that she introduced in her final seminar. She shares her experiences of being a poet at SAMS in a special edition 'Poetic sampling: when art and science collide' of the SAMS Ocean Explorer Podcast. Find out more about Helena's work here.
Find out more about Georgia's work here.
AAs a poet Suzannah is interested in underwater sound and bioacoustics. She thus came to SAMS to collaborate with our cetacean scientists and explore how marine mammals communicate and are affected by anthropogenic noise. Suzannah is the author of the Bloomsbury Poetry collection Under the Blue, shortlisted for the Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize, and her work has received the Ivan Juritz Prize and a Northern Writers’ Award. Her most recent poetry pamphlet is How Running Is (Guillemot Press, September 2026), following on from Brightwork and Marine Objects / Some Language. Suzannah's concrete poem 'Sea Ear' was hewn into stone by Argyll sculptor Melanie Chmielewska and is available as a 'wearable poem' t-shirt, hoodie or print in the SAMS online shop. Find out more about Suzannah's work here.
Andy created three films that premiered at the Festival of the Sea in Oban in 2014. The films feature original music by Catriona McKay and Christ Stout. Andy was subsequently employed by SAMS and has been the in-house filmmaker ever since. He leads on creative projects within SAMS and in collaborating with artists externally.
The Food of the Sea: https://vimeo.com/samsoban/foodofthesea
The Shape of the Sea : https://vimeo.com/samsoban/theshapeofthesea
The Power of the Sea: https://vimeo.com/samsoban/thepowerofthesea
Victoria’s practice is concerned with the representation of Scotland’s landscapes, her coasts and rivers, lochs, forests and hills. Working with SAMS geologist John Howe and former colleague Henrik Stahl, she created Slow Water, a liquid atlas of films, photographs and drawings intended to map the present condition of water in Scotland. Water as a resource and delight, water to generate power, sustain fisheries, maintain landscapes and register environmental change. Slow Water was premiered at Steetlevel Photoworks in Glasgow in 2011 and showcased in Everything Flows 2021 by Streetlevel Off-Site at the Harbour Art Centre in Irvine as part of Scotland's Year of Coasts and Waters. A 'guided tour' presentation by Victoria (short sound issue at the start) accompanied the exhibition. Check out Victoria's work here.
SUBMERSE: An art project inspired by the microalgae research of Prof Keith Davidson and Dr Callum Whyte. Find out more here.
On Sonorous Seas is the story of a whale carcass that washed up on a beach on the island of Iona and was informed by Dr Denise Risch's research as explained in podcast 6 of the project. The artist is Mhairi Killin who SAMS stills collaborates with occasionally, most recently in the Mouths of the Caves project looking at knowledge exchange through art between the islands of Iona and Svalbard.
The Ocean's Edge, curated by Invisible Dust, 2026.
Animals: Art, Science and Sound, 2024 exhibition at the British Library. Including 'Late at the Library' event with Cosmo Sheldrake, Tom Mustill, Cerys Matthews and SAMS' Dr Denise Risch.
Nick Turner at Watercolour Music shares an interest in underwater sounds with SAMS' Professor Ben Wilson. Despite an unsuccessful grant proposal Nick created a beautifully evocative underwater piece The Deep Sea Light that he brought to a SAMS annual event with performances by Mary Ann Kennedy and Finlay Wells.
Ben Wilson also collaborated on an underwater sound project by Maggie Barker as part of her portfolio on the UHI's BA (Hons) Fine Art programme.
Dr Laura Hobbs' research on zooplankton migrations in the Arctic inspired Moonlight and Ice: A zooplankton Nocturne by Michael Begg Studio. It was selected a a track on Brian Eno's EarthPercent initiative.
We have been collaborating for over a decade with UHI marine science graduate Jessica Giannotti and her textile company Crùbag. Several collections were focused around SAMS research, including the Gachon collection based on research on seaweed diseases (collaborating with researcher Claire Gachon), the Flora collection finding the beauty in toxic algae (collaborating with PhD researcher Ruth Paterson), the deep-sea collection (working with Professor Bhavani Narayanaswamy), the climate change collection (featuring research by Professor Mike Burrows, Professor Stuart Cunningham, Dr Callum Whyte, and Professor Finlo Cottier), the Challenger reports collection and the development of the SAMS tartan to name but a few! Crùbag is currently hibernating while Jessica is busy developing a seaweed based dye with her biotech company SeaDyes.
Alice Strange, recovering engineer and Scottish-Kiwi artist, was inspired by SAMS' history and access to the 50 tomes of Challenger Reports in our William Speirs Bruce Library to create a range of glorious artworks, some of which still are on display at SAMS. The work celebrates the expedition and remembers SAMS founder Sir John Murray. To view some of the work see here.
Inspired by Francisca Vermeulen's work on Antarctic microalgae, UHI lecturer and visual artist Rosie Newman created beautiful headdresses decorated with microalgae that were exhibited (and performed) among other sites in the Ocean Explorer Centre. Find out more about Rosie's work here. View the 10 minute film about the project produced by Andy Crabb here.
This online event (10th March) had 190 attendees from around the globe, chaired by Prof Juliet Brodie (Natural History Museum) with presentations by Anna Dimitriu, Jessica Gianotti of Crùbag, Samuel Iliffe, Alice Sharp of Invisible Dust, Miek Zwamborn, and panel discussion about SciArt funding and collaborations with Scott Donaldson of Creative Scotland, Alice Sharp of Invisible Dust, and Julie Platt, SAMS' Head of Development. The event is still available online. It lead on to numerous other events including a special edition of the Journal of Applied Phycology mentioned below.
Find out more here.
The brainchild of serial visitor to SAMS and our Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa Eric Bear, this one-day pop-up event brings together science, art and anything in between related to microalgae aiming to highlight the importance, diversity and beauty of microalgae. The first MoMa (now renamed MiMu) took place at the Glasgow Botanic Gardens in November 2024. It was an inspiring and successful event that will be back. Find out more here or read about it in the special issue below.
As a follow-on from the first Wild SciArt event, SAMS' Dr Mikey Ross and Prof Juliet Brodie (Natural History Museum) collated 15 articles looking at algae in art and outreach. The collection 'Algae at the Interface' includes five articles involving SAMS and UHI students, staff, resident artists and alumni. The proceeds from this journal of the British Phycological Society support student bursaries, the annual BPS conference, outreach and small research projects.